locate - Unix, Linux Command

NAME

locate - find files by name

SYNOPSIS

locate [OPTION]... PATTERN...

DESCRIPTION

locate reads one or more databases prepared by updatedb(8) and writes file names matching at least one of the PATTERNs to standard output, one per line.

PATTERNs can contains globbing characters. If any PATTERN contains no globbing characters, locate behaves as if the pattern were *PATTERN*.

By default, locate does not check whether files found in database still exist; locate can never report files created after the most recent update of the relevant database.

EXIT STATUS

locate exits with status 0 if any match was found or if locate was invoked with one of the --limit 0, --help, --statistics or --version options. If no match was found or a fatal error was encountered, locate exits with status 1.

Errors encountered while reading a database are not fatal, search continues in other specified databases, if any.

OPTIONS

Tag	Description
-b, --basename
	Match only the base name against the specified patterns.
-c, --count
	Instead of writing file names on standard output, write the number of matching entries only.
-d, --database DBPATH
	Replace the default database with DBPATH. DBPATH is a :-separated list of database file names. If more than one --database option is specified, the resulting path is a concatenation of the separate paths. An empty database file name is replaced by the default database. A database file name - refers to the standard input. Note that a database can be read from the standard input only once.
-e, --existing
	Print only entries that refer to files existing at the time locate is run.
-L, --follow
	When checking whether files exist (if the --existing option is specified), follow trailing symbolic links. This causes broken symbolic links to be omitted from the output. This is the default behavior.
-h, --help	Write a summary of the available options to standard output and exit sucessfully.
-i, --ignore-case
	Ignore case distinctions when matching patterns.
-l, --limit, -n LIMIT
	Exit successfully after finding LIMIT entries. If the --count option is specified, the resulting count is also limited to LIMIT.
-m, --mmap	Ignored, for compatibility with BSD and GNU locate.
-P, --nofollow, -H
	When checking whether files exist (if the --existing option is specified), do not follow trailing symbolic links. This causes broken symbolic links to be reported like other files.
-0, --null	Separate the entries on output using the ASCII NUL character instead of writing each entry on a separate line. This option is designed for interoprerability with the --null option of GNU xargs(1).
-S, --statistics
	Write statistics about each read database to standard output instead of searching for files and exit successfully.
-q, --quiet
	Write no messages about errors encountered while reading and processing databases.
-r, --regexp \IREGEXP
	Search for a basic regexp REGEXP. No PATTERNs are allowed if this option is used, but this option can be specified multiple times.
--regex	Interpret all PATTERNs as extended regexps.
-s, --stdio
	Ignored, for compatibility with BSD and GNU locate.
-V, --version
	Write information about the version and licence of locate on standard output and exit sucessfully.
-w, --wholename
	Match only the whole path name against the specified patterns. This is the default behavior.

FILES

Tag	Description
/var/lib/mlocate/mlocate.db
	The database searched by default.

ENVIRONMENT

Tag	Description
LOCATE_PATH
	Path to additional databases, added after the default database or the databases specified using the --database option.

NOTES

locate attempts to be compatible to slocate (without the options used for creating databases) and GNU locate, in that order. This is the reason for the impractical default --follow option and for the confusing set of --regex and--regexp options.

The short spelling of the -r option is incompatible to GNU locate, where it corresponds to the --regex option. Use the long option names to avoid confusion.

The LOCATE_PATH environment variable replaces the default database in BSD and GNU locate, but it is added to other databases in this implementation and slocate.

AUTHOR

Miloslav Trmac <mitr@redhat.com>